


The Phoenix and The Hawk

by Pipirii



Category: Mulan (2020)
Genre: Disney is a coward therefore i had to write this, F/F, I'll be honest i dont know if Xian Lang's full name is just that or if its Xian or Lang so i just, Im just a simple lesbian that was denied, feel free to correct me if you know the accurate answer!, winged it im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:00:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26308954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pipirii/pseuds/Pipirii
Summary: A phoenix rose before her eyes with the sun upon her face, hair strewn and wild.If only there had been more time to dedicate to this warrior--This woman.How she would have worshipped her more than she ever could have dedicated to Bori Khan...“Thank you, Hua Mulan…”---------------So yknow, hear me out. What if... Xian Lang didn't die and she was yknow,,, gay for Mulan?
Relationships: Fa Mulan/Xian Lang (Disney)
Comments: 25
Kudos: 328





	The Phoenix and The Hawk

A shuddering breath escaped the witch’s maw, the arrow sunk deep between her breast; blood blossoming across her darkened attire and dripping carelessly unto the sand below her. 

Mulan’s arms gripped tightly around her frame, a hand resting over the wound. It was… deep and the agony wrote across the younger woman’s face was plenty to cause Xian Lang’s heart to constrict. 

Such a pretty face did not warrant such pain to tarnish it--

“You never needed my aid to be strong, I see that now…” A shaken hand lifts, carefully brushing Mulan’s cheek as the witch’s voice rasps. “Go... You have no time to waste on a withering husk.”

Mulan’s breathing hitches, voice catches and her throat constricts at the sight; how she wishes so dearly to save the lone individual whose path could have very well been her own. 

“Xian L-” 

“Go!”

What was the foolish woman waiting for?  
Bori Khan would not wait for her in some final honourable duel, he did not care that she had come as a saviour or warrior in this final hour. There was no time to waste and every second lost was another second closer to the Emperor’s death. 

So _why_ was she waiting?  
Foolish, foolish woman!

“I-...” Mulan’s voice cracks, that lump followed as the grasp around Xian Lang tightened. “I’m sorry.”

Gently, Xian Lang was laid into the very dirt that was stained crimson with her blood. Soon, she surmised, she would pass away forgotten and alone as an unnamed casualty of this hate-filled war. 

But, at the very least, she could die with hope that any daughter to come after Mulan might not be shunned or corrupted for who they were inside. The dawn that came after this day would be brighter than any other she had ever seen and it was a shame that she would never get to view it herself…

She could already feel the closing darkness of death and could do no more than watch as Hua Mulan gave her one last forlorn glance; words uttered that fell upon deaf ears, black speckles staining the very edges of her vision.

This would be her final moment and, oh, what a moment it was.

A phoenix rose before her eyes with the sun upon her face, hair strewn and wild.  
If only there had been more time to dedicate to this warrior--

This woman.

How she would have worshipped her more than she ever could have dedicated to Bori Khan...

“Thank you, Hua Mulan…”

\-----

There is always that expectation of what came after life; the wonder of what death was like and how it carried on once they had left their mortal coils.

Xian Lang had expected nothingness or, well, eternal punishment for her crimes and the dishonour she had brought to her name and her families. 

What she had not expected was the sunlight filtering through an open window, the velvet curtains fluttering with the breeze, and the soft sounds of animals just beyond it. This was, by far, the furthest from damnation that Xian Lang could possibly get.

Cautiously, the witch sat up though a sharp stab of pain burned through her torso. One quick glance down deduced that maybe she was not as dead as she thought. Fabric tightly held her chest together, speckled with splatters of red--

Her gaze scanned the room she had been laid to rest in, confusion painting her exposed face; simple but efficient for its purpose, she supposed. A small table was ladled with bloodied bandages and medicinal supplies rested to her left whilst she sat in a plain bed, fine fabric laid over her legs to keep her warm. 

So, she was alive by some miracle of the Emperor’s will and had been very well taken care of. Xian Lang would even hazard to guess that she was still within the walls of the Imperial City itself. 

“How-....” The word quietly left her maw, waiting for the quiet discomfort to subside from her chest before swinging both legs off of the bed to stand. Her form trembled for only a moment before Xian Lang found her footing and stood tall.

If she was alive now, there would be no guarantee that she would be later.  
Now was as good a time as any for her to make her leave, she could flee for today and find a place to rest another. 

As she reached the threshold of the room, movement of red caught her gaze and a familiar voice drew Xian Lang’s attention.

“I see you’re up and awake.” 

_Mulan..._

Soft laughter followed and the strangest sense of ease fell over Xian Lang, permitting a smile to pull at her lips as the Saviour of China graced her company. 

“I, however, do not think the healers will approve of you wandering around so soon.” The woman continues, slowing to a stop at Xian Lang’s side to offer an arm out to rest upon the witch’s back. “You should lay back down…”

And that ease immediately found itself drowned beneath waves of stubbornness. “I am no old crone, I can very well take care of myself. Do you have no other important duties to attend but to mock my current state!?”

The hand withdrew and therein, came a wave of loss.  
This was an utmost betrayal of her own emotions and Xian Lang was not standing for it.

“I-... You think I’m mocking you?” Mulan’s own voice raised ever so slightly and the way it wavered only added guilt to the confusing mix of emotions that Xian Lang was bottling under ‘Treason’ for now. “You _saved_ my life! You are my most important ‘duty’ to attend right now!”

Heat crept up Xian Lang’s neck and covered her face in the faintest hues of pink. 

The correct course of action, and the most familiar, was to spread her wings and take back to the sky but it was increasingly hard to think in the company of Hua Mulan, Xian Lang was coming to find...

Let alone find a damn good reason to argue back when Mulan had persistently reached back out to curl her arm around Xian Lang, guiding her back into the room she was resting in. 

“Now, you need to rest and I am not accepting ‘no’ as an answer, thank you!”

Nobody had, apparently, ever told Hua Mulan that rest was for the weak nor had they ever told Xian Lang that she was allowed to rest--

Allowed to be weak.

“You are… determined.” The Witch sighs, leaning into Mulan’s grasp. Just this once, she would lower those guards and permit this warrior to help her. “I do not say this as a compliment…”

Again, Mulan was laughing and it was musical.  
Xian Lang was starting to think that she wasn’t the Witch in this room.

“So I have been told.” More times than the woman cared to count in this day and age. “Luckily for you, I am also very stubborn or you would likely not be alive to appreciate my… determination.”

Never had Xian Lang wanted to wipe a smug grin off someone’s face as badly as she did in that moment of time, eyes narrowing ever so slightly as the second dragged. 

And as it passed, she could only sigh and allow herself to be seated back in the bed once more. “So I have you to thank for my recovery as well, I take it?”

“Mhmm… I couldn’t leave you to die out there. Not when you took that arrow for me.” The mattress dipped as Mulan’s weight settled besides Xian Lang, her arm gliding over the fabric covering the others back before settling in her lap. “I… didn’t get to properly thank you back there either.”

“You hardly need to-...”

“No, I do. The Emperor is safe because of what you did, because you lead me to him. I couldn’t have done any of that without you, Xian Lang.” The way that Mulan spoke of her, spoke her name, it almost made the wounded woman believe the words she was saying. 

Almost. 

“I am no hero like you. I very nearly brought the Imperial City’s destruction as well as it’s salvation and even then, it was only brought about because of your conviction.” The woman’s gaze turned away from Mulan, shame creeping upwards to settle at her breast.

That was another emotion going into that abominable ‘Treason’ jar. 

“You saved the city fully and truly, Hua Mulan. You were the one to convince me it was worth saving, you were the one to give me hope that there was a place for women like us.” Somewhere, somehow, during her words, she had grasped Mulan’s hand and held it in a vice; drawing it close to her chest and cradling it for the lifeline it was.

“You had a crucial part to saving him, more so than you believe. So, as far as the people need to know, you saved the Emperor as well.” Mulan replied, words quiet but earnest as her gaze shifted to the hand clutched dearly to the other’s chest. 

“You deserve to be here and celebrated for who you are too.”

If ever there were words to break upon the glass walls that held Xian Lang’s most vulnerable emotions, they were it. 

A shaken inhale was taken, dark eyes cast downwards as if it would prevent Mulan from noting the hot tears that had started to fall. “Don’t-... You do not know the things I have done for what you have. I am not a hero, Mulan. I am stained in the blood of the innocents that I have killed, I am _drowning_ in it. I do not deserve this kindness.”

Why would she bother to lie on her behalf?  
Why bother to cover for her sins?

The silence that fell over them both was suffocating. 

The moment broke only when Mulan pulled her hand free of Xian Lang’s loosened grasp only to curl it around her body and pull the injured woman into a firm embrace. Fingers wove themselves into the Witch’s hair, smoothing it back and down as she wept. 

The tears fell silent though Xian Lang’s body trembled until exhaustion sunk into her very bones and her tears ran dry. The white mask across her face had been tarnished, strips of flesh bore through; vulnerability donned. 

“I know you do not believe me and that is okay, I won't force you to but I promise you that I am speaking the truth.” Mulan pulled back ever so slightly, her face inches from Xian Lang’s own. 

That hand lifts once more to brush away the last few tears, smearing white further across alabaster skin. “And I couldn’t let them execute you…”

Xian Lang leaned gingerly into the touch; betrayed once more by her damned emotions. 

“I couldn’t let you die, Xian Lang. I want-- I need you to have your happy ending too.” Her voice was soft and barely above a whisper, carried only by the tender wind that filtered into the room. 

Soft brown hues flitted between her lips and the Witches own; daring to lean closer. 

“I-...” 

Whatever words were to come were silenced by the tentative brush of lips, Xian Lang’s own arms lifting to finally reciprocate the embrace and allow those emotions that she had been feebly trying to keep at bay to flood forwards. 

A meek press of lips turned into a needy and deep kiss; blunted nails digging into attire and bodies pulled flush together. 

It was the sharp pang of unhealed wounds that drew Xian Lang back from the moment with a low hiss, pressing the injury weakly. Her face had flushed a vibrant shade of red but it was nothing compared to the deeper shades that painted over Mulan’s cheeks. 

It was plenty enough for Xian Lang to forget about her wounds and openly admire the woman before her; her hair mused, face blushing and breathing deeply. 

“Xian Lang--”

“Don’t.” A finger lifts, pressing to Mulan’s lips to silence her. “I wish to… speak before you renounce this moment.”

Drawing strength from absolutely any deity that cared to listen, Xian Lang allowed the vulnerability of the moment to continue before her pride returned and she closed herself off to Mulan once more.

“You have done a great amount for me and I… wished to see you flourish when we first met. I thought that the only way you would was if you followed me down my own path of damnation and death but you… proved me wrong and have given me much more than a second chance. I--” She could already see her hands beginning to tremble but Mulan’s laid atop them, lending her courage to continue. 

“You are kinder than this empire deserves and have proven yourself a much worthier warrior than _any_ man that I have laid eyes upon. You deserve more than a broken woman in this regard but… I am selfish and I cannot control what my heart wants.”

And it had yearned for Mulan since the moment her own hand had outstretched to the crying girl atop that mountain. 

“If you would consider-...”

“Yes!”

“I… did not finish.” Xian Lang’s nose wrinkled though as a smile did curl over her lips. “You have no idea what you are agreeing to, you foolish woman.”

“I might be a pretty face to many men but I am not stupid, Xian Lang. I know what you are asking and I do not care that you think yourself selfish for wanting me. I am guilty of wanting you just the same!”

Both hands were drawn into Mulan’s and held between them, the woman smiling endearingly at her Witch. “So, do not belittle yourself and just accept my affections.”

There was no arguing with that and Xian Lang knew just as much.  
Mulan was a persuasive woman, enough so that she had taken one arrow for her to the back. 

“Okay?”

“Okay. I do remain on my prior point that you are very persistent…”

Mulan chuckled, a crooked grin given as she nudged Xian Lang back to lay down once more. “More flattery? You are sweet.”

“It is not too late for me to rescind my heartfelt confessions, Mulan.” The Witch’s legs were pulled up onto the bed and carefully, she laid back once again with her lover’s aid; sighing contentedly as Mulan wordlessly adjusted to lay at her side. 

“Oh, my witch, it is very much too late to take any of that back. You are stuck with me and no amount of blades or arrows is going to change that. Now, stop delaying the inevitable and rest.”

It was Xian Lang’s turn to laugh, turning to rest upon her side and curl into the shorter woman’s form; her face pressed gently to Mulan’s throat, a chaste kiss left on bruised skin. 

“Only if you make the promise to remain the night.”

“... I promise.”

There was nothing in this world that she had done right to deserve this but Hua Mulan simply believed that she did and, therefore, she did. 

The logic was wasted on Xian Lang but she was not going to deny the results of it. Not when her hearts most desired laid at her side, snoring quietly.

Maybe there was some hope for her own future after all--


End file.
